A New Post! Whaaaaat?

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. A new post!

2023 turned out to be quite the busy year for me. My daughter added up the number of trips I took and turns out I was away some part of about half the weeks of the year! I hope this year isn't quite so bad. I also hope to revive this blog (and others) and post a bit more often.

So, in that spirit . . .

I just finished a book: Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages by R.W. Southern. I know, I know, not your typical reading material. But I like history and the history of the church in the Middle Ages leading up to Luther is important to understand what happened in the time of the Reformation. So I saw this book in a used book store and my daughter bought it for me for my birthday.

It was an interesting read, and reminded me just how complex a time the Middle Ages were. Three items that stood out for me (that may also be of interest to you!):

#1 - I have often heard it said that clerical garb was copied (perhaps that is too strong a word) or adopted from what secular rulers wore. But this book suggested exactly the opposite! Here's a quote: "Human government was especially subject to the curse of meaningless flux. It combined two of the chief features of the transitoriness of worldly things: violence and impotence. It was therefore especially necessary that the ruler should seek a supernatural sanction to mark him off from other men and give him a divine right to rule as the Vicar of Christ. Men had no confidence in mere policy or in the human machinery of government . . . At their anointing and on ceremonial occasions they wore vestments essentially ecclesiastical; they were anointed with holy oil used in the consecration of bishops . . ." So the secular rulers took their vestments from the ecclesiastical. How 'bout that?

#2 - This flows from item #1 . . . did you catch it? The secular ruler having "a divine right to rule as the Vicar of Christ"! Now, as Lutherans, God using and ruling both the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of the church is familiar to us. But the use of that title is interesting. This book explained how the pope, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, did not call or consider himself the Vicar of Christ, but the Vicar of St. Peter. He took his authority from following and standing in the stead of the great Apostle. Only later did that change to Vicar of Christ. Again, how 'bout that?

#3 - Relics. "All kings had relics in their crowns and around their necks. In the relic collections of the king lay the safety of the kingdom." This jumped out to me as I thought about Frederick the Wise, who protected Luther from the Pope and Emperor. He had one of the largest relic collections ever and was very proud of it. Yet eventually he gave it up. This, I always thought, was a purely theological thing. But with this, according to the beliefs at that time, Frederick would also have been giving up the safety of his kingdom! That makes what he did of an even greater magnitude.

So all-in-all, I learned a lot from this book. It reminded me (as I said before) of the complexities of that time in history, and also refreshed my memory of the development of the religious orders (the Benedictines, Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Cistercians). It's not really light reading and you have to like history, but if you do, might be a good book for you.  :-)